Woodward: Book is not GOP ammunition

9/10/12 9:26 AM EDT

Bob Woodward says that his highly anticipated book about 2011's failed "grand bargain" between President Barack Obama and Congress is not ammunition for Republicans, though many have characterized it as exactly that.

“I am not delivering that — ammunition. I am trying to describe what happened," Woodward told ABC News's Diane Sawyer in an interview about "The Price of Politics" that will air tonight on "World News with Diane Sawyer."

"I also make the point that Speaker Boehner was responsible," Woodward said. "He had a partner, a dancing partner. He has the Republicans in on this. … I can't simplify it or make a judgment. What I can do is provide that wiretap."

But elsewhere in the interview, Woodward cites "gaps" in Obama's leadership that contributed to the collapse of the spending and debt negotiations — fodder that is sure to fuel Republican attacks against the president in the last two months of the 2012 presidential election.